welcome to between the covers summer series where we Spotlight South Florida authors I'm Anne bocock and I'm joined by Eric Rosenberg he's written a new book before it's too late a love letter to my daughters and America Eric is a belgian-born entrepreneur speaker and author in 2013 because of prejudice and anti-Semitism he feared for the safety of his family and left his home country for good for the United States thank you for coming thank you for speaking with me today Eric Belgium was you yes your wife your three children what was the moment that you knew I Can't Live Here Anymore well thank you and it's uh it hasn't been one moment but really a series of moments I was volunteering with the security for the Jewish community in Brussels and a lot of friends in law enforcement we re depicting a country that all my friends in business and politics will not not mentioning and so th I told my wife one day we'll have to leave this country was in 2002 and then there was a series of events that described in the book uh very different and very horrific but I think the the Tipping Point for her was on the 11th of January 2009 when for the first time Israel deci to retaliate against all the missiles that they were getting from Gaza without doing anything and they were 50 000 Muslims in the street of Brussels chanting dead to Israel Israel Nazi dead to the Jews right you could have gone well yeah but I've always been an American at heart and I was very involved wi organization with the US and and I felt that nobody was waiting for us and as a country of immigrants everybody's always open and ready to help you and so that's when we finally decided to to try to come here and and that's what happened and we always felt home became a proud Americans today but it was really a process from the beginning where I thought that with the language with the culture with the opportunities be here that was the better place for my family the to your daughters and to America and as I'm reading it yes I see that but I'm also reading this as a cautionary Tale is that correct it's absolutely correct um unfortunately I'm seeing some of the same element that I saw in Europe and I always said if you have cancer or Aids and if you treat one you're still gonna die from the other so if you ar reformed Jew or if you are a very conservative or Chabad they will come at you if you are a Jew which is a democrat or a republican they will come at you and they it is on one hand the extreme right and on the other hand the extreme left and the similarities that I'd see with Europe is in the speeches is with some politician that are actually saying the same thing some of the media but in general what is totally different and which is what I love it here peop what it is freedom and people are always ready to discuss to look at the facts and not just the propaganda which in unfortunately in Belgium is not an ymore by the the same time token right in the book that you witness American Jews as living in a bubble yes especially in South Florida I must say and it's great I mean you yo been living in with no really anti-Semitism for decades and what I mean by that very few people here that are Jewish have ever been confronted with I'm going to hit you because you're a Jew you didn't have like we had police and with machine gun around the synagogue even the Army protecting a Jewish school and so they've been living in a wonderful environment without really a great awareness of what's going on in Europe and what is slowly starting to resemble uh to to some of the facts that we saw in Europe I'm reading your book know when you moved to South of all the places you settle in Parkland and then Valentine's Day 2018 comes and the Parkland school shooting did you think you had made a mistake by moving here that's exactly the question that my elder daughter asked me so she was in the school that day and thank God was uh could survive the next day was sat down and she said that if somethi would you still be saying that we're safer here in America than in Belgium tough questions and and I look at her I said listen darling first of all we're very lu you're not in one of the 17 people that die and then the 17 wounded and your mother and I are totally convinced that for Jews is better in America than it is in countries in the world and there is not 100 safe place in the world unfortunately that's the reality that you have to learn with you left Belgium a decade ago yes ever a moment of regret never what was the hardest thing that you had to get used to when you moved to the states the hardest thing the way I pronounce some words with my accent sometimes I see the face of the people so maybe they didn't understand what I wanted understand perfectly I think it's wonderful thank you you took t citizenship test you studied yo u got all of the answers right yes give me a word to describe that moment proud emotional I remember because it was covet you write a lot about choice in the book and there is a quote an Einstein quote at the very end that says the world will not be destroyed by those who do evil but by those who watch them without doing anything so I'd like to give you the final comment on that why you chose it and what that means to you I do believe in any circumstances human being have a choice we took the choice to leave despite a lot of people telling us that we were nuts in any circumstances you have a choice and that's what we took and we took it for our children and we took it for the next generation and that's also why I wrote the book because I wanted my daughters to understa we did that but also the Next Generation and my and my family will understand that and any friends in Amer will be able to to know why and how we came here and why despite everything because not no country is perfect this is the greatest country on Earth Eric rosenberg's book is before it's too a love letter to my daughters and America thank you so much for spending some time with me thank you for inviting me I'm Anne bocock please join me next between the covers foreign [Music]